Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS 5/7/19: Assessing the 2019-20 Colts with George Bremer of The Herald Bulletin

Episode Date: May 7, 2019

On today's episode, George Bremer of The Herald Bulletin stops by to dish out the latest Colts thoughts. Bremer, who's been the Colts beat writer spanning over two different regimes now, updates us on plenty of topics.- Rookie minicamp check-in: Parris Campbell is way bigger in-person than Bremer originally assumed + Rock Ya-Sin and Quincy Wilson will have a fun training camp battle for CB2.- What stands out the most covering the Ballard era Colts compared to the Grigson era Colts? Character stands out in that locker room.- How will the Colts maneuver 2020? Eric Ebron, Jack Doyle and Anthony Castonzo are the headliners who will be unrestricted free agents. Bremer says if you perform, Ballard will pay his own.- Can this offense be the best in the NFL? Absolutely.All of this, plus much more, with Bremer so don't miss out on this one! (Note: George called in and it sounds like from his car. If it's static at points on either end, that is why. Apologies.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello everybody, welcome to Locked on Colts, or the Locked on Podcast. I'm your host, Evan Seder. I'm joined by George Bremmer, the Colts beat writer and the editor of the Herald-Golden Anderson Indiana. George, how are you doing? Great, how are you doing today? Doing good, doing good. Thanks for coming on, George. Appreciate it. And I wanted to start off with you right away about Rookie Minicamp, how that went this past weekend for the Apples Colts. You see players like Parrish Campbell. You see Rocky set up for Ben Banigou and countless others. Who are the ones who show up the most to you as far as rookie minicamp goes and who you spoke to?

Yeah, Parrish Campbell, really. I think you've seen that and read that probably all over right now. But he was probably the guy who opened the most eyes. It's kind of a situation that's really set up well for him. Guy's in shorts, no contact. So the fast guys, the athletes are going to stand out. You just saw his speed. He showed a little bit of his route tree.

He went deep on at least one play, even beat the cornerback right away, and the defender kind of grabbed at him, grabbed his jersey for a second. He was able to accelerate through that. It was a bad throw. He came back to that, made the catch. So you could see a lot of what they're excited about Paris Campbell. I think Rocky Hussien, what was interesting with him was his physicality. Even though they weren't in pads, you still saw him getting on people.

There was one route in particular where Campbell was trying to run a little cut on him, and Yassine stayed right with him, made him go out of the cut and turn it into a fly, and then ran with him stride for stride, forced the quarterback to put a ball in perfectly, which didn't happen. So that was a really good rep for Yassin. And he just did that pretty much the whole weekend, you know, getting his hands on people and redirecting them. So it's interesting to see what he's able to do when he gets the pads on.

The linebackers couldn't really do a lot just because they can't hit. So you can't really see a really important part of their game. But you can see how quickly they move. Banigou looked fairly natural dropping back in coverage. He's going to have work there, obviously, to do. But it didn't look like something that was completely foreign to him. Okereke moves around really well. He made one play in particular after Campbell caught a ball over the middle.

He kind of closed on it, got his fist in there, knocked the ball out. That's something you want to see from him, obviously. And I think the coaches just in listening to the things that they've said to other people, they were just impressed with Okereke and the way that he picked things up, how quickly he picked things up. I think he's a guy who's going to have a chance to maybe try to push Anthony Walker a little bit for the starting spot there at the Mike linebacker

position. Let me ask you this, George. I mean, we're back cutting a bit to the draft when it happened on Thursday and Friday of last month. But when you watch the 360 series for the Colts where they did all these draft picks and you get an inside look at the war room and it seemed like every single player they got on day two was a person they cut. Even Kari Willis turning up in round four to get him.

Just how do you feel like the draft went for the polls because it seemed like from the outs looking in it really went perfect for them yeah you know i think those videos really did a great job of kind of letting you in on their their thought process a little bit and then also showing sort of the passion and the excitement that this group has the coaches the scouts all of them working together and i do i think you know you always hear people come out and say in the media afterwards that the board fell the way they wanted it to and everything worked out perfectly and you wonder how much of that is truth and how much that is early spin but i think those videos kind of confirm that that's sort of what happened for this team this year. They got the guys they wanted. They fell into the spots that they thought they would fall into, and that obviously doesn't necessarily translate to success on the field, but it's a

great place to start. Let me ask you this, George. I mean, the Colts were on the board at 26. They moved back from 26 to 46. They moved back again to 46-49, but they used 33 at Rocky Ascent. Would you have stayed there at 26 if you were Chris Ballard, or do you like how they played the board there? I kind of thought there was a chance they might trade down the whole way just because of the way that this class was built up. I mean, Ballard said many times in the lead-up to the draft that he only had maybe somewhere between 12 and 17 first round

grades in this class. So unless one of those guys split and it was going to take a pretty good drop to get them to that spot, then I think you go ahead and make the trade, get another pick for next year and put yourself in the value round. They know, they end up with three second rounders. I think they were really happy with what they did there, getting obviously you've seen at 34, who's a guy they probably could have taken at 26 and not gotten a lot of pushback on that decision. And then you go out and you add Ben Banigou with the pick that you got from the Redskins. And I think he's just a really interesting piece because he's a guy who I think they're going to use similar to the way a 3-4 outside linebacker is used. He'll be at that Sam spot, you know, in the base defense.

And then when they go into sub packages and obvious passing downs, he might put his hand in the dirt and come up and be a pass rusher. So it gives you more speed and more options with what you want to do there on defense. And then obviously picking up Campbell at 59, I think was a really good value for them. Another guy who some people put in the first round. I don't know how much, how serious that consideration was because there are some questions about how well he tracks a deep ball and some of the other things that he's got to work on to refine his wide receiver skills. But he's obviously a guy whose speed and versatility really fits this scheme.

And somebody you can see Frank Wright getting very excited about very early. So they could have gone and taken somebody at 26, but I think this is where Ballard saw the value on the board and he wanted to take more shots at the board in that range. Absolutely agree with you there. And you see the haul they got on day two there with Rockius and Ben Banigou, Paris Campbell, and Bobby Okereke. For those four players, George, do you expect heavy contribution from day one

like the rookie class from last year? Yeah, it's going to be interesting to see because i'm not sure at this point last year how much we expected you know how quickly guys to come on for as great as darius leonard was and i know there were some people who were on him really early there were a lot of questions about how he would transition to this level and did he have the strength to get off blocks would he still be able to make plays in the n NFL the way he did in the FCS? He came on even missing most of the spring, and really from week two in Washington forward, there weren't much questions about what he could do. So somebody's going to surprise us. There's

no doubt about that. Looking at it on paper right now, I feel like Haseen's in a position he can compete to be a starter of sorts. When you look at Kenny Moore and Pierre Desir, and I would think that they're going to have the inside track to be the starters in the base defense, but when they go to nickel, usually Moore slides into that spot. I think he'll continue to do that, and I think Hussien has a real possibility to be on the outside in those situations. And as much as you're in sub packages now, that really will make him a starter. It will make him a guy who sees a lot of snap, has a chance to be a real impact guy. I think Okereke, as I mentioned earlier, has a chance to compete with Anthony Walker.

Going into the offseason, I feel like Walker will probably hold that spot down. But there's no doubt that Okereke brings more speed, more athleticism. That's what they want in this defense. I think he'll have the opportunity to win that spot, whether or not he's able to pull it off. Van de Geu will be a starter in the sense that I think he's the odds-on favorite to be the same linebacker, but that guy's not on the field that much in this scheme you're talking about maybe 30 percent of the snaps so with him it's really can he nudge jabal sheared out of the way and get some third down reps at defensive end that's where he can make his impact the campbell i really think has a chance to make the biggest impact early on from that whole group just because he seems to be such a good fit for this offense the routes that that he ran underneath, getting that ball quick

and then making plays after the catch, showing some of his running back skills that he had in high school, I think that's something that translates very quickly and very easily to this offense. They can kind of give him those routes, work him in with things that he's comfortable with, and then let him build kind of as he plays. So I feel like he's probably the guy that can make the most immediate impact.

But I think all four of those second round guys are going to have opportunities kind of up to them and what they do with them. Speak a little bit more on Paris Campbell here. You've talked to him probably a few times already at rookie minicamp, but up close and seen him for the first time, George, what was it like? Because I feel like Paris Campbell as a slot guy, at least at 6'2", he's pretty big for a slot guy. Yeah, that was really the first thing that you notice.

You hear slot and you start thinking T.Y. Hilton. You start thinking Griff Whalen, you know, smaller guys. And that's not Paris Campbell at all. Physically, when you just see his body type, he probably reminds me most of Reggie Wade he's got that kind of slim build and in about the same height I think he's listed at six foot but he's almost we were wondering if he's not one of the few guys who's actually listed smaller than he really is he could easily be 6'1 or 6'2 when when you see him in person and I think that's going to

that's going to be an interesting aspect of his game because when you hear Frank Reich and Chris Ballard both say as they have that they don't see him as only a slot receiver moving forward, you see the size and you think that's a real possibility. And then you know his speed. So for him, it's really how much can he pick up from T.Y. Hilton? Can he become a technician as a route runner the way that Hilton is? Because that's very important in this offense. We saw that. Dontrell Inman was able to make the impact that he was able to make,

even as a midseason pickup, because of the way that he ran routes. It just made him such a favorite of this coaching staff, and it made him a favorite of Andrew Luck. And you wonder how quickly Parrish Campbell can get to that kind of level. The faster he's able to expand his route tree and give Luck the confidence that he can do a lot of different things in a lot of different ways, the bigger his impact is going to be. Yeah, me personally, I'm very high on the aspect of Paris Campbell,

him having an immediate impact in this Colts offense. But going to the defensive side of things and kind of transitioning into the Rocky Asin and this interesting angle that I haven't really heard much talk about yet, but how big of a year is this after drafting Rocky Asin at 34 for a guy like Quincy Wilson, George? Yeah, Quincy's in an interesting spot because I think last year he finally started about second half of the season on. He finally started to settle into a role almost similar to what Clayton Gathers does he's really out there

in dime situations playing a little closer to the line of scrimmage that's where he really excelled and so there's some people who think that Rocky Singh can do some of that as well and so there is overlap definitely between those two and Quincy really the role that I talked about earlier being that outside guy in the sub packages that's really what Quincy was at the end of the year last season so there's no doubt that Quincy Wilson's the guy you've seen has to beat out to get that spot and what happens to Quincy if if he is the loser of that battle that's going to be a really interesting question. It's a huge year for him. In year three, we know the struggles he had as a rookie, some immaturity.

He's admitted that himself. It took him a while to kind of get used to what it takes to succeed at the NFL level. But he was also only 20 years old, which is easy to forget. And I think that added to that and contributed to some of the struggles that he had. This year, he's finally had some success in the NFL for the first time. I think he has an idea of what his role is in this defense. He's had an offseason to work specifically on those things. So it's a huge year for him.

But I also think that even if he's not the winner of that competition, if Yass seen ends up being the guy who's the starter in this situation we've seen over the last three four five years they're going to need that fourth fifth sixth cornerback at some point in the year and so I think really for Quincy it's all about first of all competing honestly and trying to win that with a full fledged effort which I'm not sure we always saw from him in his first two years. And then secondly, if he doesn't win that spot, being ready when his number's called. Because one thing about this coaching staff, about Chris Ballard, about this scheme, guys are going to get opportunities. At some point in the season, they're going to get their chance.

And it's really been all about what they do with it. So I think for Quincy Wilson, taking advantage now of that opportunity and cementing his spot, you saw Pierre Desir do it last year. You know, when the opportunity came his way, he stepped in. He took really the job that a lot of people thought Quincy Wilson would have. Now it's Quincy's time to see if he can do the same thing. Yeah, definitely going to be interesting how it shakes out, not only during OTAs, but also training camp as well,

between Rocky's set and Quincy Wilson for that number two corner spot. But I wanted to ask you this question, George, because you've been around the team during the Grigson era, now during the Chris Bauer era. I wanted to ask you just how much of a focus Chris Bauer has made on the character aspect of players, because you're in the locker room every day. What's it like just interacting with Grigson players in the past, now Bauer players in the present?

Yeah, there's definitely been a focus. It's more than just sound bites on that character component. You can feel it when you're in the locker room. You can feel it when the players are coming in and talking to us over the weekend. Every rookie kind of had the same mentality, the same mindset, I guess. It reminded me a lot last year, the one guy that really stood out was Naeem Hines. When he was talking to us during rookie meeting camp,

we were all thinking no matter what job we had, if this guy was interviewing with us, we would hire him. He'd be at least high up our list of candidates. And I think everybody who came in this year kind of was the same way. They're just impressive kids. You look at a guy like Bobby Okereke and you think no matter how good he is on the football field, no matter how long his NFL career is, he's probably going to make his real impact after he leaves the game behind.

I mean, this is a guy that could run for office and, and you would be behind him really quickly. He's just a smart man. All those Stanford kids are smart guys, but he just seems like he's one of those people that he's got everything together. And really the whole class kind of felt that way, really well-spoken guys, high football intelligence. But I think what that does to the team is you end up with a lot of guys with,

for lack of a better word, want to. Guys who aren't going to fail because they didn't do things right to prepare. I think that was one of the things that you saw during the Grixen era. Guys who had talent, who needed to be molded, who needed to be guided in the right direction, who didn't do the right things to prepare, who didn't do the things in the offseason to take advantage of the opportunities they got when the season rolled around. You're never going to be 100%. Somebody's probably going to mess up in that regard in this draft class, but it feels like

all these guys have the right makeup to take advantage of those situations, and it fits into the general feeling in this locker room right now that they're all there to compete they're all there to have each other's backs and they're all there to push one another to be the best that they can be so the team ultimately is the best that it can be yeah it's going to be really curious just to see how it all breaks out long term of this team because he's building it the right way from the ground up you have guys like quinn mills and darius linder already in the fold hopefully get more as the years go on. But I wanted to ask you this, George, about the team this year. And that's you talked to Eric Ebron today.

What did you hear most from him today? Because you even said I read in your story that he was aiming for Rob Gronkowski's single season record, 17 touchdowns. He had 15 last year. But what's your expectation for Ebron next year? Because I know 15 or 17 touchdowns seems fun and all, but there's so many weapons in this offense that might seem a little unrealistic. Yeah, I think Ebron, it's great for him to set a goal like that.

And really, if you're going to exceed what you did last year, and that's sort of the way that he framed it, this is probably the only way you could do that statistically. But I tend to agree with you. I think when you've got a Paris Campbell in the mix now, when you've got Devin Funchess who should take some of those red zone looks away, when you've got Marlon Mack and Frank Reich has made no secret that he wants the run game to be a bigger

part of the equation this year, when you've got T.Y. Hilton who's healthy now, you know, all the things that he did at the end of last year, he did on one foot, basically. It's going to be tough, I think, for one guy to get that big a piece of the pie. And that's not to mention Jack Doyle getting back into the scheme of things and being healthy as well. There's a lot of options out there for Andrew Luck. We know Luck likes to spread the ball around.

Is it possible that Eric Ebron could go out and get 14 or 15 touchdowns again? I guess anything is possible, but I think it's more likely that a good season for him is going to look like eight, nine, 10 touchdowns and doing his job and being a part of, you know, drawing the defense away and opening things up for other guys. Yeah, it's going to be really intriguing to see how it shakes out for Ebron next year because he's aiming for some high goals there. He could reach them, but with this offense high lead it could be this year, George, it seems like that could be a little far-fetched.

But I wanted to ask you about Eric Ebron, another questioner, because he's on the final year of his contract, so is Jack Doyle, so is Ankit Stanzo. How do you see all these contracts shaking out for next year? Because it seems like Chris Bauer, when you see free agency, when you see the moves made so far, he's pretty clear with his money. So if someone offers Eric Ebron like a $10, $11 million contract for free agency next year, is there a possibility Chris Bauer says, thanks or no thanks, and let's some guys walk away next year

and get overpaid? There's a possibility. There's no doubt. But I think what you've seen with him and what you saw this offseason is the guys he's going to pay are the guys that are in-house. If he's going to pay somebody $10 or $11 million, it's going to be more likely a guy who's in that system, who they know, who's been in the building, who they have all the information they need on health-wise. That's kind of where he wants to spend the money.

And so I think that's part of why people kind of scratch their head now and ask why there's still so much cap room available. And I think that's part of the reason. They carry that over to next year, and they know there are a lot of guys up. Will they be able to bring all of them back? Probably not. That's just unrealistic. But when you look at this season and the guys,

there weren't as many big-name players who were coming up this offseason. When you look at the guys that they re-signed and the guys that are still out there or that signed elsewhere, it's hard to really name a whole lot of people who you wanted to see this team bring back who aren't back in the fold. I mean, maybe a guy like Dontrell Inman a lot of fans would have liked to see come back, but when you signed Devin Funchess and you draft Paris Campbell, I'm not really sure where Inman would fit into the mix now.

And I think that's sort of the Chris Ballard approach. Get the guys who you want to be a part of this team and then get them re-signed and then keep them going forward. There will definitely be decisions to be made, I think, in all three cases. Ebron's got to show consistency. He's got to prove last year wasn't a fluke. I think Anthony Costanzo has to show he's still got enough left in the tank. You could argue last year was his best year as a pro,

but he had the hamstring injuries at the beginning of the year. He's going to have to show that he's healthy and he can play a full season. He could still be a guy who's in the upper reaches of that left tackle spot going forward. And I think Jack Doyle's got to prove that he can stay healthy and be consistent. If they do, I think Ballard will be more than happy to open the checkbook. If they don't, he's always shown that he'll be willing to move on and find another guy who fits instead. George, I wanted to ask you this question as well because we've seen some already hype from T.Y. Hill in this past –

I think it was Monday, actually, about how secure this offense is going to be. And when you see the pieces, like they've added Devin Bunches, Paris Campbell, Ari to the mix have already had great offense yards, 27 points per game last year. Is there a ceiling on this offense, George? Do you think there is a high possibility that with Tyreek Hill, that whole situation in Kansas City right now, do you think there's a high possibility that with Tyreek Hill, that whole situation can't sit here right now? Do you think there's a chance that the Colts have the best offense

in the NFL next year? I think there really is a chance of that. And I think part of that, too, is, you know, there were additions with Pontius and with Campbell. But I think a big part of that is that it's year two and that they really – it's not just that they only have one year together. You're looking at a situation where Andrew Luck didn't really start practicing with a full team until training camp last year.

A lot of those guys, Marlon Mack, for instance, had never played with him before. It was their first time actually being on the field with him. They were all in a new scheme, obviously, with Frank Reich and Nick Sirianni. And so when you put all of that together and you realize how much they overcame to be as good as they were a year ago, you would just think naturally with the whole offensive line coming back as a five-starting unit with everybody who was there a year ago, I think 10 of the 11 starters are back.

To be able to grow in year two of this scheme together and to have a full offseason with Andrew Luck, you would think there would be improvement from that alone. And then you add in Funchess and Campbell, who I think fill really specific needs. Funchess with that physical boundary receiver, and Campbell as a guy who can make some catches underneath, get some yards after the catch, it really does make you think that

this is an offense that could go out and be, if not the best in the NFL, one of the top two or three. About Andrew Luck, I know he's the engine of that offense and the engine of this team, but I think it's incredible. I don't think people are talking enough about how he was almost done with his football career last year, comes back and finishes third place in MVP voting. He was wrecked by Andrew Breach, Patrick Mahomes.

What do you think is the expectation for Andrew Luck after his year two, after that shoulder injury, George? Because it seems to me like with all these pieces, with the best offensive line in football, you have a good running game now, all these wide receivers and weapons. They're setting things up for Andrew Luck to have an amazing season. Yeah, everything's there for him to go out and have an MVP caliber year. I think last year he had to prove that he could still play at a championship level, and I think he showed that, especially after the first few weeks of the season, once he finally got his feet underneath him. And I think for him, you know, of all the players,

he's probably the one who's going to benefit the most from the continuity that we saw this offseason. Having that same offensive line in front of him, probably the first time in his career he can say that. Having, you know, most of his weapons back from a year ago, his tight ends are back, his running back's back, his number one receiver's back. Just having to work in a couple of new guys instead of basically all of them,

I think he's probably the guy who benefits the most from that. Now he can just take the foundation that he laid a year ago and build on that. And really when you look back at the Manning era and the success that they had, that was a big part of it. Keeping together a core group and letting Peyton Manning era and the success that they had, that was a big part of it. Keeping together a core group and letting Peyton Manning just stack year on top of year on top of year, they weren't starting over every season. They were starting from a base and building on that. And so in the third year, the fourth year, the fifth year, that team, that offense just got a little bit better

every season. I think that's what Ballard wants to do now with Andrew Luck moving forward. George, this has been really fun. The close thing's out here. I wanted to get your thoughts, just some personal story on what you're looking forward to most with the 2018-19 season. You've got to pick maybe three or four topics that you're really keeping your eye on for this season. Yeah, I think the first thing is some of the battles

that we're going to see in training camp. We talked about some of the things that are going to go on at corner. I think that's a really interesting position overall, and it's going to be fun to see how that plays itself out. I think wide receiver is a very similar position. Going in, you assume the top three are going to be T.Y. Hilton, Devin Funches, and Paris Campbell, but nobody's really handed anything in this roster right now,

and there's a lot of young guys beneath them. Deion Kane, everybody wants to see how he's going to come back from his knee injury and if he can fulfill the promise that he was showing in the early offseason last year. Marcus Johnson is kind of a forgotten guy in all this. Had a breakout game against the Jets and got injured late in that game. Ended his season. Drees Fountain, is he going to be able to bounce back after a disappointing rookie year, join the mix?

And then you've got Zach Paschal and Chester Rogers, who had big roles last year trying to fight to keep those spots, keep the young guys off. I think receiver is going to be a really, really fun spot to watch. Linebackers are kind of in that group, too, with all the kids that they drafted to see how that plays itself out, how those guys are able to find a way to make an impact, if not in the base defense, maybe on special teams. I know that's one of the reasons that they went and added as

many guys there as they did. And then I think the defense in general. I think to me that's going to be the story of this year. It's going to start here in a couple weeks when they finally get on the field for full team practices and it's going to continue through training camp the preseason. I feel like there's a lot of speed obviously that's been added to this defense. That was a goal that Chris Ballard has been very open about but also there's a lot of moving pieces now. A guy like Banigou can play linebacker. He can play, and a lot of the guys on the defensive line can play inside or out. Some of the corners can have safety, versatility as well.

Some of those guys can come up and play as an extra linebacker. It feels like there's a lot of things they can do from week to week this year to kind of morph that defense and to match up with whatever offense they're facing so they can be a very different defense when they play a team like Tennessee for instance go big stop the run then when they play a team like Kansas City and you're trying to cover speed all over the field then they can go young you know they can they can go smaller and use their athleticism. I think it's going to be interesting to see Matt Eberflus in his second year as a defense coordinator, how he deploys those pieces and just how much he's willing to kind of mix

up the way this defense looks from week to week. George, for the listeners out there to close things out, I mean, if you look around the AFC, do you think the Colts right now should be one of the favorites in the AFC for next season, or is it a little too early to measure that? Yeah, it's obviously early because you just don't know enough about how everybody's pieces are going to fit together all across the league, but I think when you look at the AFC South, everybody improved in this offseason. It's going to be a better division top to bottom, but I think you have to look at the Colts as a favorite going in. Yes, Houston won the division last year.

The Colts beat them twice on the road, including in the playoffs. So you think going into the season, they should be the favorite in the AFC South. And if they can win that division, now you're looking at being right there in the mix. The big question is, can they get Kansas City or can they get New England and catch one of those top two seeds? Because I really think the bye and some home field advantage is really going to make the difference in whether this team can make a truly deep playoff run or whether it's a relatively early exit again. Yeah, if they can get home field advantage,

they get all those home games, Lucasilo staying through the playoffs. It's going to be a really tough out to get that cold steam out of there, but Hey, George, this has been fun. I appreciate it. You can follow George over on Twitter at GM grammar. You can also follow us,

work over the Harold Bolton. Appreciate it, George. No problem. Anytime. All right. Thanks, George.

Thanks a lot.